Field of Glory 2.0...First Time...

I heard somewhere there have been some changes to Field of Glory.  This is a system I enjoy playing although I am not sure I understand the finer details of it fully, might I add this is more of a reflection on me than the system. I any case tomorrow evening I will have the opportunity to play my first game under the amended rules. With 800 points rather than the usual 650 point games we usually play at CLWC.

I find myself quite excited by the prospect since I haven’t managed a game of FoG for a couple of months, it is a good opportunity to reacquaint myself with the rules. What adds an extra level of excitement since this will be my first doubles game. My friend and colleague Phil is joining me to command the early Imperial Romans on this outing.

Last night I took the opportunity to review the troops in anticipation of Thursday’s clash against Simon and Mark’s Later Macedonians. This allowed me to ensure the base counts matched the army list.   I should also mention a special word of thanks to Alan who kindly lent me a couple of extra battle groups, allowing me to make up 795points for this game.

As a teaser I thought I would put up some pictures of the legions practicing their square bashing prior to being boxed up for the trip to the club tomorrow evening.  

                

The Scrape at the Escape

I passed an enjoyable Thursday evening playing the final group B game of the CLWC B4AD tournament. While the match up between Mid Republican Romans and the Pyrrhics could have gone either way. Last night, it was Simon's night. He out scored me 12.9 points to 7.2.

Deployment positions at the start Romans on the right 

Most of the damage was done in the final couple of turns on the right flank where I got myself tied up in knots with a traffic jam of light foot. As a result my flank screen of medium foot, in retrospect  they were deployed on the wrong flank, were exposed and trampled, chopped and squashed by a combination of elephants and cavalry. One of the medium foot units were Italian Extraordinairii. These chaps which served me well in previous games, however Simon had faced them before in a previous games, when I deployed them he mentioned that he found them a dangerous opponent. My inexperience showed  by allowing to let them get isolated and his elephants and cavalry made them pay dearly. Two bases were killed off and the remaining ones routed when they witnessed the attached troop commander getting flattened by an irritated battle group of elephants.

  Tentitive advances

Up until the penultimate round it was more or less square, with tentative advances by both sides until the Pyrrhic elephants and cavalry struck.

The legions forelorn charge 

In the set up I lost the initiative and every optional piece of terrain I put down was removed by Simon's dice coming up with sixes. This resulted with a feeling of agoraphobia on the part my commander, faced with a large pike contingent with lots of room to manoeuvre and no terrain for me to run and hide in.

On the last turn I had my legions charge Simon's pike after an bit of manoeuvring to nullify the prospect of counter charges. This was in the hope I could cause a bit of disruption and claw back a couple of points for pride.  In the end I did fragment a pike unit to salvage some pride, despite some dismal dice roles on my part.

All in all a highly enjoyable evening playing soldiers!

Third Tournamant Game

On Thursday evening my Mid Republic Romans well see action once more. I am playing my final group B game against Simon's Pyrrhic army in the club's B4AD tournament. To make it into the next round I not only need to win, but win big against an established player who is vastly more experienced at Field of Glory than I am. According to the current standings I need a victory of 25 points or over to make it to the knockout stages of the competition. This is a big ask considering my inexperience with the rules. To date I have played five, won one, drawn one, lost three.

So by Friday morning the following questions will be answered:

How will I perform against Simon’s Pyrrhic Army in this last group B game?

Will I do enough to win, and if so by how much?

Are Andy’s purpose built Roman crushing cataphracts safely though to the next round?

Group B Placings

The updated competition tables were distrusted this week. This illustrates my position in third place with a game in hand. Red indicates clear passage to the next round at the top of the group, amber is likely to go through in second place:

Alan Early Successor Played 3 46.8

Andy Later Seleucid Played 3 39.8

Jerry Mid Republican Roman Played 2 15.4

Simon Pyrrhic Played 2 8

Looking forward testing myself against Simon's Pyrric army later next month will I be able to do enough to dislodge Andy from his secure position of second place?

Roma Vincit

Well Monday's game is done and the miracle occurred, I beat Alan’s Early Successor army by 1.8 points. Giving me my first Field of Glory victory 10.9 points to 9.1.

Any post battle analysis has to start by giving credit to Andy the owner of the Mid Republican Roman army I was using, firstly for the army, and secondly for the useful advise he dispensed after our tournament encounter and again directly before the game.

In previous games I managed to get my Roman cavalry killed with alarming regularity. So this time I dispensed with them opting for a battle group of Numidian Light Horse and an extra group of medium foot Italian allies.

The light horse paid dividends due to their manoeuvrability. Despite being placed on the right flank they managed to race across the field in front to the main battle line and intercept a battle group of elephants which were bearing down on the end of the line of legionnaires. This made all the difference to the end result because it occupied the elephants so they thought better of charging the legionnaires.

The deployment at the start of the game.

Despite losing the set up initiative roll at the beginning, the terrain fell in my favour providing me with a steep hill on the right flank and a large section of rough ground towards my left flank. In the centre I had a nice gentle hill to place a defensive line of legionnaires on and nullify Alan’s pike force since I didn’t think they would fancy attacking up hill.

Once my position was set I only had to worry about my flanks which were covered by a couple of battle-groups of superior legionnaires and a mix of light foot and auxiliaries.

The first rounds of fighting resulted in me losing a battle group of light foot on the left who ran away at the first sign of trouble. I made no impression against Alan’s light horse on the right. As a novice player I found myself out numbered in the in the shooting and combat phases so opted to pull out my remaining light troops and attempt to rally them.

On the right flank I moved forward a superior legionnaire battle group which had a couple of charges at the light horse. They managed to isolate themselves, at the time this worried me. Nevertheless, in retrospect I think this was a good thing to do since it kept his light horse in check, away from my main line and forced Alan to move troops across to counter them. Being superior they took a fair bit of punishment before they broke and ran.

The end positions to the from Alan's side of the table. you notice my legionnaires exiting on the fare left of the table and Alans battle groups breaking and exiting on the right.

However, it was on the left flank that the battle was decided. After having my velites chased from the rough ground by a combination of light and medium foot my other superior legionnaires stood up to charges first, from medium foot and then from superior cavalry both of which broke on their line. Alan’s light foot over ran its support and ended up being chased around my rear by triari. By the end of the game they found themselves in a precarious position of being surrounded on three sides by triari with velites closing on their position.

Alan's light foot finding themselves in a slightly unsavoury position by end of the game.

So far in the B4AD tournament I am one win and one loss. I was informed that I need to win the next game and score at least 25 points to displace Andy form second place in the group as Alan progresses to the next round being top of the group on points accrued despite my result. Naturally I will be supporting Alan to go all the way and win the tournament so I can claim a victory over the champion at the group stages!!

Photo credits : Alan.